South Africa president, Cyril Ramaphosa has described as ‘impactful’ the African delegation intervention meeting to end the war between Ukraine and Russia after meeting both leaders.

The delegation including the leaders of South Africa, Senegal, Comoros and Zambia, as well as top officials from Uganda, Egypt and Congo-Brazzaville met with president Volodymir Zelinsky of Ukraine on June 16 then Vladimir Putin of Russian on June 17.

“Our mission was impactful. Its real success obviously will be measured on the ultimate objective of stopping the war.”

Ramaphosa listed 10 principles, which included de-escalation, the recognition of countries’ sovereignty, security guarantees for all countries, unimpeded grain exports through the Black Sea and sending prisoners of war and children back to their countries of origin.

“Any initiative is very difficult to implement, but President Putin has shown interest in considering it,” Peskov said after the leaders held a closed doors meeting.

Putin had praised the delegation’s “balanced” approach and said he was “open to a constructive dialogue with all those who want to implement peace based on the principles of justice and respect for the parties’ legitimate interests”.